455 Dangerous to Know

[MichaelB]

DANGEROUS TO KNOW
(Robert Florey, 1938)
Release date: 21 April 2025
Limited Edition Blu-ray (UK premiere)

Pre-order here

Anna May Wong (Shanghai Express), Akim Tamiroff (Spawn of the North), and Gail Patrick (My Man Godfrey) star in Dangerous to Know, a hard-hitting crime drama from director Robert Florey (Murders in the Rue Morgue), inspired by the life of notorious mobster Al Capone.

Crime lord Stephen Recka (Tamiroff) will stop at nothing to marry socialite Margaret (Patrick), including murder and blackmail. However, his pathologically jealous mistress Lan Ying (Wong) will stop at nothing to keep them apart.

Based on Edgar Wallace’s hugely successful play On the Spot – which was such a big hit that several studios repeatedly attempted to bring it to the big screen, only to be rejected by the censors at the Production Office – Dangerous to Know is marked by its standout performance by Chinese American screen legend Anna May Wong, reprising her stage role.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• 2K restoration
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with film historian Jeremy Arnold (2025)
• The Guardian Interview with Anthony Quinn (1995): newly edited video recording of the great actor in conversation with Sheridan Morley at the National Film Theatre, London
• Nurse and Martyr (1915): surviving extracts from Edgar Wallace’s first-ever screen credit, with a newly commissioned concertina score by Bernard Wrigley
• Image gallery: promotional and publicity material
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with new essay by Pamela Hutchinson, an archival interview with actor Anna May Wong, an archival profile of actor Akim Tamiroff, new writing on Nurse and Martyr, and film credits
• UK premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited edition of 3,000 copies for the UK
• All features subject to change

#PHILE455B
BBFC cert: TBC
REGION B
EAN: 5060697924770

[domino harvey]

I get why they'd license this due to the cast of great character and bit actors, but this wasn't much of a movie (though I liked it more than the other Wong/Tamiroff pairing that Kino released, King of Chinatown, so at least we were spared that). A film built on Tamiroff scheming and putting his fingers in everyone's pies should be great, and probably if you read a summary of this film you'd think it must be a winner, but it plays out quite poorly and none of the likable cast are given anything to do and cannot coast on screen presence alone. One hopes that the lack of Tamiroff on-disc extras means they've got the General Died at Dawn in the hopper...